Harder Times
by DannyFentonLuver
Summary: Sequal to Hard Time. When Vlad gets the info that Amy is half ghost, he decides it would be good to get her while she is four, and try to teach her his ways. Now Danny has a new challenge, and a new life... Lots of DS! Please Read & Review!
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! I got right onto this one, cuz I was excited to write it! Anyhow… a few things before I start…

Danny and Sam are now 18, and are just graduated when the story starts. Amy and Tiffany are obviously, 4. Also… I know some people dislike it when things are fast-forwarded… but yea, it will be interesting, I promise ya!

**Harder Times**

Chapter 1: Graduation

Finally, the day of graduation, school was over, and I was ready to start my own life, one without my nagging parents, or dumb school holding me back. Although, my parents hated the fact that Sam and I were moving out of our homes, and into a new one in about a month, which I could hardly hold my energy in on that one. Although, it was Sam's parents that wanted her to move out, but of course, you couldn't split us apart, and I was no longer under my parent's rules. I had just turned 18 a couple of weeks ago, and that was probably the best birthday ever, now all I needed to wait for was 21 to get the rest of my rights!

Anyhow… Amy and Tiffany were now four, and both of them taking a lot from Sam. Although too young to be able to tell yet whether they were going to actually be Goth or not, I could see both of them turning into replicas of Sam. Amy's purple eyes were full of Sam's behavior though, even though Sam was way older… She also had long black hair, which was driving Sam nuts because she couldn't stand having someone with long hair in her house, besides her parents, although hers to was getting longer than usual, I guess it was just changing as she got older. Her hair was now down to a little below her shoulder, and she just looked a little older than before, there wasn't much a change in her.

I on the other hand, kept the same hairstyle (why not?) but I had gained a lot of muscle, not too much though, but enough where you could see it in my arms, and especially in my stomach, where I now had a six pack. But then again…. I still wasn't the toughest guy in the world, but Sam thought I was a hotty being a little on the weaker side. I also picked up a little of the Goth trend from Sam, I had an ear pierced now, and I now wore mostly all black. My jeans were black with chains on them now, and I wore a loose shirt that had a red skull in the center, surrounded by black to match the rest of my look. But, I still had the same attitude, and same suit while I was Danny Phantom, I was never going to change that.

Sam now looked a little different as well, like I said before, her hair was a little longer, but it now contained five purple streaks going around her head in evenly spaced positions. She now also wore a skirt that was all black, and had a belt on it that was big, and well… Gothy? It had red frills at the bottom, and fit loosely on her, but it was still short like her recent one. A new shirt went along with it, a tight belly shirt with the word Different imprinted in purple in the center, setting off her individuality, and it too, was black. She was as skinny as ever, and well… I have to say, a lot better looking than most girls now, she often got a lot of glances from other guys, but they were turned away by the fact that she was Goth… and when you see an 18-year-old with a boyfriend, and two kids, I don't think it would appoint to much of an interest.

Amy, was dressed as Sam wished, since she was more of Sam's favorite compared to Tiffany, and Amy was also a little more of my favorite, but we both loved them a lot. Amy of course, was a lot tougher than her sister, who was often brought down by the fact that Amy did get more attention, and was a little rough with Tiffany. Amy was definitely going to be a Sam once she got older, and I could only wait for that. Tiffany, who resembled more of my features, except for one thing, was a lot quieter, and well behaved. But, she wasn't as interesting, although, she was really adorable (yes… I know, I am saying that) compared to Amy, and I often felt bad from her lack of love from us. But she also avoided being around us too, as though she didn't want to be around us at all, and she just wanted to be by herself.

But anyway…

"I can't wait!" Sam hollered, as we returned home from our graduation party, I was driving, while I had to deal with her rambunctious behavior in the seat beside me. She was talking about moving out of course, since she like a lot of kids, wanted anything to be away from her parents, but her more than others.

"Same here, and you know what?"  
"Huh?" She asked me, unable to sit still, as though we were moving that day, but unluckily… we hadn't found a house yet. Yes, I told you before we WERE moving in about a month… but I guess that was just what we were planning.

"We still need to find a house," I said, breaking her concentration, she believed we were moving, no matter what soon, and all her excitement seemed to well… fall apart when I said that.

"True, but we get to look this weekend," She said, it was as though we were a married couple, yet we were still teens, still trying to find out what jobs we are going to take, and trying to take care of everything else all at the same time. But… we were more like adults than a lot of kids, we had a lot of responsibility.

"Yea, you think we are moving the second we find a place?"

"No… but you don't always have to be so serious, think of it on the bright side!" She said, her whole attitude changed at the moment, since we had nothing left to do for now, but unfortunately, she was going to attend collage, even though her family had more money than she could imagine, her mom wasn't going to give any of it to her, since she wanted her to live a NORMAL life, but our life was for one, anything BUT normal.

I on the other hand, being the one that had to be the super-hero, was going to have to stay home. So, I was going to have to tend to Amy, and Tiffany for the next few years on my own while Sam was away at college, but it was OK, I wasn't complaining. After all, I wasn't going to have to get a job or anything. My job was being Danny Phantom, and a parent. But I was also going to LOOK for a normal job as well, or else my parents, and her parents were going to think I was just lazy and expecting everything from Sam, since after all… they didn't know about my ghost powers… but I wouldn't be surprised if it was found out soon. Since… well… Amy seemed to have gotten the ghost genes from me. Yes, she had them, I knew that for a fact, but as far as Tiffany went, there wasn't any so far.

"Bright side, huh? Didn't think you would think on the brightside," I teased her, mocking her Goth self, since they were known to be dark, and gloomy, but hey, they were just like normal people, with a little different way of dress, and a little different outlook on some things, but they weren't grouchy, and unhappy.

"Hey, I wouldn't be talking if I were you," She said, and despite the fact that I was driving, gave me a little nudge anyway. After all… it wasn't as though I couldn't just go ghost and save us all, safety wasn't much of any issue as far as the two of us went. Of course, safety from ghost hunters, and people, was a different thing. I was most scared of people, and some ghosts, but not all ghosts were bad, the people were the problem.

"Where are we going?" I asked her, unsure of where she wanted to head out after our big day, we were going to a party later that night, but to be able to relax together for a while, I was unsure of where she wanted to go.

"I dunno… Wanna just drive around?"

"Sure, why not," I said, and just turned away to a direction heading out of town, I didn't like to live in the city, our home was surely going to be locked up in the woods somewhere, or at least in a neighborhood.

I parked out a ways from town, on a backroad, where not much houses were, the only ones that were there anyway, were a long ways apart, and people didn't usually travel down it. The perfect place for anyone to be able to get a break…

"Nice to know we have no more school, huh?" I asked Sam, and she turned her attention from the road, to me.

"You don't have any school, but I will soon have college."

"Well… It's not like you have to go," I told her, because I knew if she tried hard enough, her mom would let her slip with a life of luxury.

"I know, but hey, I don't wanna argue with my parents, I just got away from that," She laughed, and stuck one arm around my neck. We leaned together and gave each other a passionate kiss, we were finally 'old' enough in our parents eyes. They though that after we were out of their houses, we could to just about anything we wanted, except… breaking the law or anything like that, obviously. But of course… we broke that rule a while ago, and that made them a little stricter about it.

"We haven't been able to do that in a while," I said after we broke apart, although, we did kiss quit often… But hey, that was the first time we knew we were aloud!

"Yea, you know, the party starts in about 20 minutes," she told me, and I looked at my watch. Wow… we hadn't done very much, and the time went by fast. I stuck the keys in the ignition, and started the car back up again. It wasn't actually MY car, it was more of Sam's, but she knew how much I loved mustangs, and let me drive it all the time. It was a black mustang, with a red flame on both sides, it was awesome, and how much I would want one of my own, although, anything that is Sam's, is mine as well.

"You know, we don't HAVE to go Danny," Sam told me, I had been nervous about going, because Valerie was supposed to be there, she was getting taken out of jail for just the day, but of course she was going to be on close watch. After all, they thought it was only fair for her to make it to her graduation, since she was still attending school and everything, just behind bars. It wasn't something most places would have done, but when you're in Amity, it's a little different.

"No, it's fine, not like she can do anything to me, for all I know, she could be in chains and have people right behind her keeping close watch." Yes, no one has heard of allowing people to leave the prison, it was punishment, but her dad had his ways of getting things, and one way or another, he got this. Maybe because she lost all of her teenage life, but she also caused me a lot of pain Sam a lot of pain, and Amy to almost loose her life. Also, I had a permanent scar on my back… which of course, wasn't something everyone wanted, it made it look as though I was abused or something, but I usually kept my shirt on anyway.

"Yea, besides, I would love to see what she looks like now."

"Yea, but they aren't gonna let her near us, you know that, right?"

"Yea, I know… but oh well? Not like as though we couldn't see her. Besides, I think I would like for her to stay away."

The party was at the school, in the whole school, there was going to be different things in different room and a dance in the gym of course.

When we got there, everyone was already there, we always seemed to be the last people to arrive to everything, although, we probably weren't the LAST of them all, it just seemed like it by the full parking lot, and the large majority of people clogging up the door to the school. Of course, the losers even had to come, which we used to be, but now people often left us alone, especially after the incident with Valerie, people couldn't believe either one of us lived through it, and we both made headlines in the newspaper for a while.

"Well, let's get in there," I said, and shuddered at seeing the cop cars parked up close to the building, Valerie was already here, which wasn't a good thing at all. I didn't really want her to be there, but Sam seemed excited to be able to see her. And I would love to walk up and just shove it in her face that she got thrown in jail… but that would be a pretty dumb thing to do.

We got threw the doors, and I looked around the place, as though wanting to say bye, when I was going to be there for a good two hours at least in the party, but I would never return here, unless of course we stayed towards Amity and Amy and Tiffany had to go here.

"Well… now what?" I asked her, looking at all the people I had just seen earlier today, although most of them, I wouldn't see again, in fact, probably all of them but Sam. Tucker even, was planning on moving to California, because of all the girls there, but I wasn't sure if it was really going to happen. He wasn't staying here though, so I would need to get as much time in with him tonight, although we would probably still call each other a lot as well.

"We need to find Tucker… I guess," Sam said, as though searching through a list of friends we had in our head for a second, although we only had… 1. Well, not like as though we couldn't get anymore, we didn't want anymore. I dropped the wanting to get popular act a long time ago, I was just happy the way I was.

"Yea," I said, shoving through the familiar faces, holding onto Sam's hand so we wouldn't get lost in the people. Of course, Dash and Paulina had their own corner, where their whole gain stood at, but to tell ya the truth, Paulina was really getting UGLY. She had gained on at least 50 pounds onto what she would have normally weighed with her height. Now she had a gut that stood out with her tight fitting clothes, although, she never was really all that skinny anyway. Now she wore to much makeup, and you could tell she was trying to hide the ugly skin beneath it, and she looked pretty much like just a fat slut.

Dash was still the same looking, just… shorter hair, and a little bit of an older look, but as far as in his head went, he wasn't any older at all.  
"Sam! Danny!" Tucker called, I could tell it was him from anywhere, normal, geeky him. He didn't change… not at all. The same clothes, haircut, everything, and people wondered why ANYONE would hang out with someone like that, but he was our friend, and had been for a long time. The only thing that changed was he had a deeper voice, which I never accomplished. Sam and I both contained pretty much the same voice, mine was just a LITTLE deeper than before, but not much, and Sam's was the same.

"Hey Tucker," I said, and we both walked up to him. He was all happy to see us, and I knew he was going to start talking about his future plans, like he had been for the past month or so, thinking he could just move without the money.

"California, here I come!" He said with a jump, and I just rolled my eyes. What was he thinking?

"Yea, you head straight for that, after a few years of living in an apartment."

"What makes you think that?" He challenged Sam, she wasn't afraid to say it like I was.

"Umm, hello? You need to have money to be able to even drive down to California, let alone move there, smart one."

"Well… not my fault I don't have the money, like… u do," he said, saying the you do in a tone which was asking for the money.

"Sorry Tucker, no can do," she said, she wasn't the kind of person to hand out money to people, not even her friends, although she was always offering it to me before hand, when we were just friends.

"Aww, please?" He asked her, but this time it was more of a joke. He knew how much Sam hated people begging her, if she wanted to give it to him, she would have done it without him even asking.

"Nope, I need it for once, my mom and dad are giving me enough to go to college, and to be able to buy a house. That is pretty much it, I won't be the rich one anymore, they will be."

"Well… when they die?"  
"That won't happen for a while," she said, as though she actually wanted it to happen. Not all for the money, but for the fact that she hated them so much, and couldn't stand either one of them, enough to the point where, I could see her never going back to them again for anything.

"What do you guys wanna do?" I asked, breaking up the conversation, and Sam gave me a look that said "Thanks!"

"I dunno, go into the dance room… but that is where Valerie is at right now," Tucker said, he knew I still had a fear for her. Yes, I was scared of her, and I was afraid that when the day came that she was able to make it out of there, she was going to come back for me. That wasn't going to happen for another 15 years though, so who knows what would happen between now and then.

"Danny Fenton… you showed up here?" I heard behind me, and turned around, Valerie. She was allowed to get near me? I wanted to shout, GET HER AWAY! Right then, but… I couldn't, and that would be stupid.

"Yea… why wouldn't I?" I asked her, and looked her over. She looked like she had so much muscle on her, like as though she really was a prisoner, doing her daily workouts. She had short cut hair, that was barely even hung over, it was almost so short it needed to stand straight up. She was as tall as I was, and wearing normal clothes right now, not what you would expect from someone who had cops following her around, but there was none there as of now, why weren't they there?

"Thought you might not show up since I was here. How's Amy doing?" She asked, as though she cared about our lives.

"Good… you?"

"Miserable, all because of you two," she said, the anger burning up inside her, and I almost took a step back to escape, but then that would make her know I was scared of her, and I didn't want that. She clenched her fists, as though trying to hold the anger back in.

"If I knew I wasn't going to get caught, I would seriously trying and kill you right now," she threatened me, in a whisper, just in case someone was watching, or listening to what we were saying.

"Come on," Sam told me, and grabbed ahold of my hand, leading us away from this scene, but I felt a tug on my back, and I turned around, Valerie wasn't going to let me leave.

"One last thing Fenton, as soon as I get out of here, I promise you… you will pay. My dad, is planning on me getting out in a year or two."

I stared at her for a second, but Sam tugged me away.

"Don't listen to her," Sam told me, once we were away, and Valerie was talking to someone else, although I really had to wonder why someone would want to talk to her.

"I won't…" I said, but I knew those words were going to bug me for a long time.

"Maybe we should get out of here," I told Sam, I didn't want to be here anymore.

"Danny, you can't leave, she is watching you for one, and would love to see you leave, just ignore it."

"All right," I agreed sourly, and followed Sam into the dance room, Tucker went off somewhere else, he just seemed to have disappeared. Probably the food, what's new? A song flipped on, one familiar to Sam and I, If Everyone Cared, by Nickelback. One of my favorites.

"Wanna dance?" Sam asked me, and I nodded. It wasn't exactly a slow song, but it was.

_And as we lie beneath the stars_

_We realize how small we are  
If they could love like you and me  
Imagine what the world could be_

If everyone cared and nobody cried  
If everyone loved and nobody lied  
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride  
We'd see the day when nobody died

"That explains us," Sam smiled, holding onto me in a tight hug. I smiled back, and held onto her tightly as well.

"Of course it does," I said, my life seemed so perfect right now…

"See you later!" I called out to Tucker as we started to head in separate directions. It was 10:30 before we finally decided to leave the place. I thought we wouldn't be there so long, but it was all right, we had a good time.

Sam and I both headed to our own homes, we weren't staying together, we hadn't stayed at each other's houses in a long time actually, my mom didn't like it much, and neither did hers, so we just obeyed, and hung out all day instead.

When I got home, Jazz was there, she had traveled back here from her new home for my graduation party that my parents were throwing for me the next day.

"Hey little bro," she said, and gave me a quick hug when I walked through the door.

"Hey," I said, and fell down onto the couch.

"You doing all right?" She asked me, and I shook my head, but I wasn't. Valerie had said she would get revenge, and I believed it, that was for sure. How she got revenge, was beyond my knowledge though.

"You seem bothered. You afraid to leave home?" She said seriously, as though she actually thought I wanted to stay here.

"No, Valerie was at the party at school, that's all."

"What happened?" She asked now, interested in it, and worried about it. She was concerned for my safety more than anything, as though I was still 14, although… I was still only 18, but my point being.

"She was just there, and said she was going to be out in two years or so."

"Oh… I thought it was…"

"15, yea, I know, but it turns out her Dad is getting his way once again," I said, cutting her off, I just wanted to be left along for a while.

"Well, you let me know if you need anything," she offered, and I smiled at her, and closed my eyes, lying there on the couch.

"Danny, your home sweetie," My mom said, appearing around the corner, and my concentration of falling asleep was shattered._  
_Yea, I'm home, and I had fun," I said, answering her question before she asked it.

"You tired?"  
"Yea, a little. But it's nothing, why?"

"Just wondering. Because you need to get rest for tomorrow's party as well!"  
"Yea, thanks for it by the way," I said, I really did appreciate her going through the trouble, but it wasn't as though it was going to be anything special. Not much people would be there, and it wasn't as though we really had a yard to throw a party in.

"No problem. I am just so proud of you," she smiled, and walked off into another room. I sighed, and closed my eyes again, almost falling asleep, until I felt someone jump up onto me, and I opened my eyes again to see Amy sitting there.

"Hey," I said to her, and smiled at her, she looked happy to see me, I hadn't been around much in the past few days.

"Hi daddy," she said in her cute little voice, and she gave me a quick hug.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" I asked her, wanting to be in bed myself right now, and I was… 14 years older than she was.

"No." She told me, and I sat up, shifting her onto the piece of couch next to me.

"I think you should be," I told her, and got up.

"But I slept in lots today!" She told me, as though she was trying to scam a way to stay up later, she was like that.

"Well, that's good, you'll have lots of energy then tomorrow," I told her, and picked her up off the ground. Jazz watched us with a smile on her face, as we exited the room, and went upstairs.

"Please?" She asked me, and I almost felt bad, which was why she was spoiled as it was.

"No, I'm going to bed too," I told her, hoping maybe that would change things a little. For being four, she was sure a sneaky kid, and tried to get things her way all the time. She was pretty smart.

"I wanna stay up later than you!"  
"Not until your 14," I told her, remembering all the times I had with Sam staying up late at night, all the 2-person parties we had together.

"But that's… a long ways away!"

"Yea, well, you can wait, I did."

She gave up and said nothing else, as I laid her down onto her bed, or… Jazz's bed, she got her room after she had left. Although, Jazz was here tonight, but she was probably going to just use my bed, since I was fine with the couch.

"Night," I told her, and turned the lights off.

"Daddy, I have a question," she said, before I made it out the door, and I turned around a flipped the lights back on.

"Huh?"

"Why was it today, that my arm went through the table? When I was eating my cereal. It caused a BIG mess!"

Great…

"Umm… maybe you were seeing things?" I said, trying to think fast, why did that have to pass onto her?  
"No, I wasn't, I promise!"

"Umm… I dunno, I'll have to ask your mom tomorrow," I said, and flipped the light off in a hurry.

"Night," I told her again, and shut the door. I walked back down to the couch, and plopped down, now I had to have something else to worry about…

All right, that was a little, long, I know. But hey, I was luvin' it! I couldn't stop! Heehee, but I did… finally. Anyhow… PLEASE review! 5 reviews to continue, everyone that read Hard Times, would know! 0.0

U


	2. Vlad Returns

Chapter 2: Vlad's return

When I woke up in the morning, my back was sore from lying on the couch all night. I sat up and looked around the dim room, I had woken up early, that was for sure. The whole house was silent, and only the creaking of my steps headed to the kitchen could be heard. I held my back for a second, and bent backwards, and heard it crack, but that didn't make it feel any better, just more stiff than it was before. I opened up the fridge, and looked things over, but decided I wasn't hungry all along. I sighed, and looked at the clock… only 8:30? People should be up soon, I was guessing.

I went back to the living room, and lay back down on the chair, and grabbed my headphones, I loved passing the time by listening to music.

I closed my eyes, and before I knew it, the CD had ended, and it was 10:30. Everyone was up then, Jazz was waiting for me to wake up, because the second I did, she ran over to me.

"Your finally awake? Fall asleep with your headphones on?" She asked me, removing them from my head for me. I shook my head for a second, and sat up, then stretched.

"Yea, I fell asleep but I was awake before any of you were, so I wouldn't be talking."

"For a couple of minutes? We've all been up since ninish!"

"Stop your whining," I said, shoving her out of the way (playfully of course) and walking out into the kitchen but I still wasn't in the least bit hungry.

"Hey Danny!" My mom yelled at me, while she was getting ready to make some sort of breakfast, which was going to make me hungry. She made the best French toast ever and just the smell of it would for surely give me an appetite.

"Hey," I greeted her, and turned around, on my way upstairs. I took slow steps since I was still not all the way up yet, but made it up there sooner or later.

"Hey daddy," I heard Amy say, and I turned around, to see her wiping her sleepy eyes, and she walked up to me.

"Hey." I wasn't exactly the BEST dad in the world, I talked to her like I would talk to anyone else, not like as though she was my kid or something, and I didn't do it in that sweet voice most parents talked to their children in, I did it as though I could care less. But everyone knew I loved her despite the fact that she was a lot of work for someone that had school and a social life to deal with as well. But over the years, my social life went to talking to just Sam and Tucker and of course my family.

"I'm hungry, and this morning I'm going to try and show you!" She challenged me, since I tried last night to pretend as though she was nuts over her intangibility. I didn't want to tell her, not yet and plus I wasn't sure how to handle it. All I had to hope was that Tiffany didn't get it.

"No, your not going to." I told her, and she just kept staring at me, as if expecting something.

"What?" I asked her, and she walked up to me.

"I want something to eat."

"If you wait a little, you'll get something, be patient."

"I'm thirsty too…"

I sighed, and ignored what I was going to do, which by this time I had forgotten anyway. I picked her up, which Sam hated me doing, because she thinks it's spoiling them too much, and headed back down the stairs.

"What do you want?" I asked her after the fridge was open.

"Pop."

"No, you can't have pop for breakfast," I sighed, did she always have to make an issue out of everything?

"I'm not thirsty then."

Grr… what a brat.

"Well, then your out of luck, cuz I'm not gonna get you anything else," I told her, and set her down on the ground. She made me mad all the time but I didn't get angry with her, I kept it all in with no problem.

"I want orange juice," she said, realizing that she wasn't getting the pop. She was still thirsty, she just figured if she didn't drink anything I would allow the dumb pop.

"All right," I said, and poured some into a glass for her, and she grabbed it from me and walked Un-easily to the table with it.

"I'll try to show you daddy," she said, and I walked up to her.

"Be quiet about it, all right?"

"Why?"

"Because, you don't want people to think your nuts," I lied to her, and she gave me an odd look.

"You don't believe me?"

"I dunno."

"I'll be right back," I told her, and walked up to the door. I grabbed my keys off of the counter and started to head out the door.

"Where are you going?" My mom asked me, and I turned around slowly, as though I had been caught from doing something I wasn't supposed to do.

"Going to get Sam, I'll be back in a couple of minutes," I told her.

"All right," She sighed, as though she didn't want me too, but I just ignored it, and walked out the door. My car, which I loved almost as much as Sam's, was a Corvette, and older one, but I had it touched up in a couple of days, and now it's blue paint was shining, and it looked brand new.

I hopped in, and in a couple of minutes with a few turns down the road, I was outside of Sam's house.

I got out, and knocked on the door. Sam was the one that answered it too.

"Hey," she said, and I walked it hurriedly, I wanted to talk about Amy here, instead of at home.

"I need to talk to you," I told her, and drug her up the stairs to her room, away from where people would be hearing us.

"What's going on?" She asked me as I shut her door.

"I need to talk about Amy… and I don't want other people to hear us."

"My parents aren't home right now…"

"Oh well…" I said, feeling stupid for making such a big deal over it, but it was something important.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked me, a little more worried now than she was before when I had first arrived here.

"Well… I think she got ghost powers…"

"What makes you think that?"

"She said that yesterday her hand went through the table, and she asked me what was wrong. I told her she was just imagining."

"Well… I guess it's not a BAD thing…"

"I don't want her to have them though! You know how much crap I had to do all throughout high school, imagine her having it her whole life!"

"Well, we could always take it out of her… but I think she should keep them. It keeps her unique," Sam smiled, but all I could do was think if it was a good thing, or a bad thing. Of course, I had my fun times with it, but I was also a looser my whole life, and I had no social life and really bad grades.

"Yea… but in yet, I don't want it to ruin her life…"  
"Danny, you had a good life, don't worry about it."

"If you say so."

"You need to just relax, school is over with, your free for a little while just enjoy yourself for a couple of days," She told me and pulled me into a kiss. But it was broken by a cry in the room next to us.

Sam and I both ran over to the room next to us, and were… surprised? Or… maybe a little depressed and scared to see Vlad standing there in Tiffany's room, holding onto her.

"Mommy," She cried, and he just held the struggling child as though it were no problem to him that she was desperate and scared.

"Put her down," I ordered him, and he just smirked.

"Is this what came from you?" He asked, looking at her disgusted, as though she wasn't good enough.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, you've grown a lot over the past four years that I haven't even bothered to see you. And then when I came to find out you had two children, I began to wonder. But… she doesn't seem half as good as you are," he said, as though trying to put a 4-year-old up against an 18-year-old, and expect us to be even.

"How did you find out?" I asked him, and changed over into Danny Phantom, just in case I needed to be ready.

"How did I find out? Well… TV of course. You were all over the news."

"But… you would have known then, why now?"

"Because, I didn't know about it till I got a package with some videos in it from Valerie."

So that was her way of getting revenge? How did she ever possibly send him videos from there though?

"You are a smart child Danny, and I would hate to get thrown in jail like Valerie, so I will hand this thing over," he said, and set her on the ground. She ran over to Sam and Sam picked her up quickly.

"But I would like to know, where is the other one?"  
"No of your business…"

"Oh, no matter, I will be over for your graduation party, since Jack is such a nice person to invite me."

I clenched my fists, and changed back over to a human. Why did he have to ruin my starting to get perfect life? I was just getting over other things, and then he had to start up something else for me to worry about.

"Can you just leave me alone? Bug my dad, fine, but don't get me involved with your dumb-ass conflicts," I said angrily, I didn't want him harming Sam, Amy or Tiffany. He was just as bad, if not worse than Valerie, because with that accident, I think he lost part of his brain.

"Oh, now you've got an even worse attitude?"

"No, I'm just tired of you bugging me."

"Well, I had better head on over to your house, your party starts in 10 minutes."

I watched him leave, and slumped down. If it wasn't one thing, it was the other.

"Well, we need to get over there too then," I sighed, and Sam followed me out the door, and down the stairs, and then to my car.

"You know Danny, maybe if you would just ignore him, he would leave you alone. Act as though you don't care what he does. I think that maybe all he is trying to do, is make you mad."

"Probably, but I can't help it."

"Well, just try."

I smiled at her, and started up the car. Once I reached my house, there was a few more cars outside of it, one being Tucker's, everyone was probably wondering what happened to me.

We all hopped out of the car, and walked into the house, everyone was standing there staring at us as we walked through the door.

"Where were you?" My mom asked me, and gave Sam an odd look, as though she had done something.

"At Sam's house, where I told you I would be."

"Why did it take you so long?"

"I dunno, cuz it did."

"Well, almost everyone is here now."

I looked around, and there was a lot of people crammed into our house, a majority of them being Jazz's friends, and my relatives. Also Vlad being one of them… I wished he would just die…

"And you know, you could have worn something a little better than that," my mom told me, pointing at my jeans, and I just sighed. She hated me going Goth, but hey, it made me look better than the other lammo stuff I used to wear.

"I've been wearing it for a while," I said, and walked away from the scene she was creating, and Sam followed close behind. Vlad was already looking around trying to find Amy, where was she anyway?

I started to walk up the stairs, totally ignoring the fact that everyone was there for me, and headed down to her room/Jazz's room. She was sitting there, brushing her hair, or in other words ripping her hair out of her head because she still didn't have that down at all.

"Need help?" I asked her, and she shook her head.

"No."

"She needs it cut," Sam said, walking into the room with Tiffany holding onto her hand tightly.

"I don't want it cut," She said, and turned away from us so she didn't have to look at us.

"What's your problem?" Sam asked her, and walked up behind her.

"Nothing."

Sam took the brush out of her hands, regardless of how much Amy disliked us doing things for her, and started to run it through her hair.

"I could have done it," She whined, and crossed her arms. Sam just smiled about it, she wasn't going to argue, and could care less about what Amy thought of it, I on the other hand would have just let her get her way…

"Ok, now let's get back downstairs," Sam said, after Amy had silky, straight hair. I turned around, and lead them all back down the stairs reluctantly. I didn't want Vlad to know about Amy, but he was going to find out somehow anyway so I just decided to get it all done and over with. Besides, with all these people around, it wasn't as though he could do anything. But he did notice when we all reached the bottom of the stairs and all he could do was stare at her though. The only thing I didn't want him finding out about, were her ghost powers, which was yet another reason why I didn't want her to have them, he would be there.

"Hey Danny, I have good news," Tucker said, walking up to me, and I turned my attention from Vlad over to him.

"What's that?"  
"In about… 3 years I SHOULD be in California, if I get the job I am planning on, and I am a good worker, and don't spend any money at all, except for about a hundred for grocery's a month. So I will have to get a bike to travel, and not us anything in the house, just a bed to sleep in, and food to eat."

"I highly doubt that is gonna happen Tucker. Only a hundred a month to spend? I doubt it."

"I think I can do it. I will just hang out in the park with people my whole life other than my job. OR so I can have something to do all the time, I could have two jobs! What a great idea!"

I sighed, and just shook my head slowly, and then Sam came in and said my thoughts for me.

"You aren't working like that Tucker. As soon as your allowed to go out an do whatever you want, you will be spending a LOT of money."

"Well… I have a plan, and I am going to TRY and stick to it."

"Key word, try," I said, and both Sam and I laughed at him. It was hopeless to try and change his mind, but if he was going to work two jobs, and stick to his plan good for him. But I just knew Tucker well enough to know he wouldn't work that much, he just wasn't the type of person. And he couldn't go a day without TV, or the computer.

"Daniel, is this the other one?" Vlad asked and made me jump out of my enjoyment. I turned and glared at him, but didn't want to say anything.

"Yes."

"Well, she looks a little more better…" He said, examining her, and I didn't like it in one little way. How could someone be THAT creepy?

"What do you mean by that? They are twins, they look pretty much the same!"  
"Well, when you were upstairs with her, she was more of a fighter," he said, and smirked at me. He had been spying on us. grr…

"Go away," I told him, and he just smiled at me, and walked away. It was a creepy smile, one you wouldn't want to get from someone and one that would stick in your nightmares for years to come. No matter how hard you tried to shove it out of your mind, it was there.

"I hate him," I said amongst the three of us, and we all lost our happiness for the day. That look he gave, was one that he had a plan.

For pretty much the rest of the party, there were a few games and of course dinner and all the other junk you have at a normal party. And all my relatives that I hadn't seen in a long time never said a word to me, or at least the majority didn't. All they did was gave Sam a dirty look, and then an odd look towards Amy and Tiffany. They were disgusted with me was there problem, and I could care less, I hated family anyway. It was hard to believe I was even related to them, it was an embarrassment!

But all I could wait for was the next Day, when I got to go find my new house, although, someone was going to be coming along, even though we didn't know it…

Okies, lame chapter, I know, but you have to go through lame ones to get to good ones sometimes! Please review, and I PROMISE the next one will be LOTS better!


	3. Amber Creek

Ok guys, it is a little slow in the beginning, but there is a twist near the end, and I promise you, I will leave ya hanging for a while :P I gotta work on some other stories than this so I will be taking a break for a little while to satisfy my other readers that are reading my other stories :P Here it is…

Chapter 3: Amber Creek

Early the next morning I got up trying to avoid any contact with my parents or the other few people that had stayed the night, the dumb family members I was talking about before. There was my grandma that I had seen once a long time ago, and my Aunt, who was a bitch and thought I was just some hooligan, as she would say it. I snuck out of the house with no problems and hopped into my car, I was getting out of there while I still had the chance.

Of course when I started up my car that was probably the wake up call for everyone, but that was their problem from even coming when they didn't like me anyway. I couldn't wait to see if there was a house out there for us, it would be nice to move as soon as possible. I would be free, and finally be able to do things the way I wanted to do them. YES!

"Hey," Sam said as she hopped into my car when I pulled up to her house. She smiled at me as she shut the door, and then she curled up. It was cold this morning, you could see your breath in the air, yet it was just now august. Usually it was hot out right about now. But I was happy with the cold weather, I liked it much better. Flying around fighting ghosts with the sun beating down on you never did any good, and it made me tire easily.

"Hey," I said and started down the road, escaping this town finally. Never again would I have to look out my window in the morning and see other people wandering about the streets, and see my neighbors looking out their windows too. I wanted to be set far away from other people, although I was going to have to return to Amity to fight ghosts, it was just something I had to keep up with. I couldn't let down the city I had protected for the past four years.

"You excited?" She asked me breaking the silence at which both of us were thinking.

"Of course."

"There's this place called Amber Creek, supposedly there is ten houses on the whole 200,000 acres. I guess you get ten acres of land; it's kind of an enclosure type thing. The other nine houses are far away from the one you pick out, and there is a park in the very center. It's right down the road," she told me, and I nodded.

"Yea, I've heard of the place too. It's expensive though, isn't it?"

"Oh well, my parents are buying it," she smiled; anything to make her parents mad was good enough for her.

"And besides, they are new homes, well, two of them that are for sale are new. The place was just built a year or two ago. I would rather have a house that was never used before," she said, and I agreed with her all the way. A used house was a pain in the butt. You had to clean everything afraid of something that someone had spilled on the floor, or all the germs collected up in the house. And also you could never tell the history, and with history came ghosts, sometimes.

We got there fast, it was about 20 mile from amity, and I could get back home fast if I needed to. There was a sign above an archway that read "Amber Creek" in big, bold orange letters. It was a cement road, a one way though, so if two people were coming, or leaving at the same time, you would have to wait your turn. But that was all right, at least there were hardly any people.

We drove a little ways down, and the first house to come up was one of the two that was up for sale. I would rather hang out closer to the front, it made for an easy way out.

"Want to go take a look?" I asked her and she nodded with excitement and opened her door up fast. We both walked up to it, my arm was wrapped around her keeping us close together. She was shivering in the coldness of the place, we would live next to a lake this way, but it would also blow off colder winds. But that was all right, during the summer it would be perfect!

"Brand, shiny new," she said as we opened up the door revealing an empty house with only things such as lights, counters and cupboards. The kitchen was right to the left of the entrance with the dinning room on the other side of the entrance.

"Guess it's for when you're hungry right when you walk in the door?" I joked and she looked around at the empty house. There was an archway and when you walked through it, it opened up a large living room pretty much the size of my whole basement, just empty with a huge Bay window on the far end. The carpet was a pinkish color and the walls were all white.

"The carpet would have to go," Sam smiled, her least favorite color pretty much, was pink. I laughed about it and we walked up stairs that were to the side of the living room, totally ignoring the other two hallways on both sides of it. It was like a mansion pretty much, but it was rockin'. Once we got upstairs, there was yet another place where you could walk up stairs, but we went down the hallways on both sides first, both of them had a bathroom and one bedroom. Pretty much like a small house for one person, everything they needed was right next to their room.

We walked up the stairs once again, and it led to one huge room that was totally plain.

"What would this be for?" She asked me and I shrugged, "I dunno, I guess if you wanted to have a party or something."

We then left and went all the way back down to the main floor, and walked down the two hallways which one led to another plain room, and the other was a Master bedroom with huge windows going all the way around it. There was also a bathroom down that hallway, this house was perfect.

"And a downstairs?" Sam said, and looked down some stairs at the end of the hallway we were in.

"I guess so," I said and began to walk down them, the stairs creaked as though they had been worn, and once we got down to the bottom it was a fancy basement. There was huge lights on both sides of it, and then in tile on the outside of the floor with carpet in the center.

"Never seen one look like this," Sam said, and we both walked around it. Something about it gave me the creeps though, as though maybe this house wasn't new? It had to be though, all the floors and everything had brand new carpet that left indents when you stepped on it, it was obviously new. The basement though, just seemed different and less comforting.

"Well?" Sam asked me, making a decision before looking at other houses was odd, but this one seemed to be perfect! It fit us perfectly, and I was imagining that the whole area would be perfect for us.

"I like it."

"All right, we can get it then!" She said, obviously she was hoping I said yes. Although… the house was 450,000… which I was sure her parents didn't really wanna spend THAT much money, but they said any house she wanted, so she was getting what she wanted.

"All right," I said, and we left it. From outside I turned around and looked at it once again, well, we would be moved in, in no time hopefully…

"You find a place?" My mom asked me, she was hoping I didn't, I could tell just by the way she looked…

"Yes. We should be moved in within the week," I told her with a smile on my face.

"I'm so proud of you Danny," Jazz came in from behind. Followed by my grandma that was still around, and my Aunt. Darn it… did they HAVE to wait to say bye to me?

"Well, I still say he should be going to college and waiting before he hooks up with his girlfriend," My grandma said in that old people tone I had never heard my whole life pretty much. She was grouchy, and old, just the reason why I hated old people so much. She was my family, but she was never there for me my whole life so I could care less about her and her opinions.

"And I say he should be punished more," my Aunt said and gave me a stuck up look. Amy ran out right then too, one of the things that made them feel that way about me, and hugged me. She had been up but just now realized I had gotten home.

"Hey Amy," I said and picked her up from off the ground. She smiled at me and threw her arms around my shoulders.

"Daddy, I gotta show you something," she said, and I looked at my Aunt and Grandma giving me dirty looks and Jazz smiling at me.

"All right, can it wait?"

"Yea… I guess," she said and her smile faded. I realized I was gone a lot and didn't have much time to spend with her, but as soon as we got moved out of here and I took a little vacation from fighting ghosts and all she would get a lot more attention.

"Hold on just a second," I said and set her down on the ground and she ran over to the couch to wait for me to finish what I was going to do.

"Well, we're getting out of here," my grandma said as my aunt and her were on their way out the door, and I waved and all they did was gave me a dirty look and walked out the door. Wow, how much my family loved me. They said bye to my mom with no problem though once they were outside and I just rolled my eyes and retreated to the living room where Amy was sitting.

"All right, what was it?" I asked her, I just wanted to wait for them to leave before I became rude and walked off. Although, I guess they were rude to me so I should have just done it.

"Come on," she said and walked up the stairs which she was still not too good at. I followed behind her and she ran into her room and sat down on the bed.

"Watch this!" She said and her she stuck her hand down on the bed and it went straight through it. Great… Now I pretty much had to tell her, she had shown me the darn 'trick' now, and I was just going to have to let her know about it, rather she knew what it meant or not. Or I could make something else up…

"See, I told you!"

"I don't believe you still… How do I know it wasn't a trick?"  
"You should believe me! I promise you! It wasn't!"

"How did you learn that?"  
"I dunno, just kept trying to do it, and it happened!"

Should I wait until she was older? It would be the best thing, she wouldn't understand now, and it would be no use for her to know about it. Besides, then I had to worry about her running around and telling everyone else, she wouldn't know any better and at her age she would think it was all a joke.

"You can't show anyone else that, all right?"

"Why not?"

"Because… most people can't do that. It's just a secret between you and me," I told her, and she smiled. Now of course she would run around and be happy she knew something no one else knew, it was something all little kids liked to shove in other people's faces.

"Ok, I won't tell anyone else!" She said happily and ran down the stairs. I sighed and sat up to keep an eye on here, now I had to worry about her disobeying me. Either she would disobey me and think that was funny, or run around telling people she had a secret.

She did neither though. She ran downstairs and sat down on the couch, as though she was expecting me to follow her.

"Daddy, can we go do something?"

"Not right now. Maybe later," I told her and turned the TV on. I was lazy, yea. But anyone who just realized they had the rest of their life to do pretty much anything would be lazy for a few days. Although, I didn't realize yet that living on my own came with a lot of responsibilities, but that wasn't till later.

"Please daddy?"

"What do you want to do?"

"I wanna go see mom and Tiffany."

"All right," I told her and got off the couch. She followed me and I waved to my mom and she just nodded and headed down to the basement where my dad had been working on some dumb project for so long.

Amy hopped in the back of the car while I got in the front. She must not have liked us living in different homes, it kinda made it look as though we were split up or something. Not really to me and Sam, but to Amy and Tiffany it probably did, if they really even knew about that sort of stuff.

"Why do you wanna go over there?" I asked her.

"I don't get to see them too much. Just like you."

"Well, that'll all change in a few weeks, I promise," I told her, and started down the road. It was true; I needed to spend more time with her. It was as though she was pretty much all alone and didn't have parents that cared, but it was nothing that I could really help.

When we got there Amy ran out of the car and up to the door. I walked behind her and got there a few minutes after and knocked on the door.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked me and looked down at Amy, then back up at me.

"She wanted to come over," I said and Sam let us through the door. Amy never even said Hi to Sam, she just ran up to Tiffany's room.

"Guess she misses her sister," I told her and Sam nodded.

"Obviously."

"You weren't busy, were you?"  
"No, I never am. My mom and dad are down taking care of buying that house right now, so I was kinda bored anyway."

"Arguing with your parents keep you occupied?"

"Yea, I guess it does. But I will be plenty busy once I get to spend all my time with you," she said and we hugged each other.

"Yep. And you wanna know the odd thing? No ghosts in a while."

"Yea, it's as though maybe you are getting a break easily."

"Yes, that would be nice. Maybe I would never have to fight any ever again," I said, although that was just a high string of luck I was hoping for. I was already getting a lot of luck as it was; there was no chance of that ever happening. Besides, it was a lot of fun sometimes, just that a little break was nice.

"I doubt that. And besides, then what would you have to do?"

"Nothing much I guess…"

"Exactly my point," she smiled, and we both walked up to her room. Some things were all ready packed away in boxes, maybe we were moving sooner than I thought?

"When are you planning on moving?"

"Umm, in about 5 days Danny. But it's not like as though we can stay there, but we can start moving stuff in there and getting it set up a little."

"Ohh… I didn't know that… How much of this stuff are you bringing?"

"Enough of it. Things I have to have I guess. My mom said she will keep everything else."

"Yea, I'm pretty much just leaving everything."

"Well… some things I have to have. You plan on having a ghost portal?" She asked changing the subject a little.

"I dunno. Maybe, maybe not. It is pretty much just a way for ghosts to break through to this world."

"Yes… but you might need it."

"Not right away. I can fly back home if I needed it."

"True… True. You ever go to tell Amy?"

"Oh… I dunno. She just proved it to me today. So I think I will tell her when she gets old enough to understand."

"I think you should just tell her, and see."

"You tell her then."

"Nope, that's your job," she told me and we both sat down on the side of her bed. She leaned up against me and I looked around the remains of her room.

"Lots of memories in here," Sam said, and I nodded.

"And my parents are planning on moving out of here too. I may never be in this room again," she said, and we both stared around the room. Luckily, I would keep all of my fond memories in my house; my parents were keeping it of course.

"Really? Where are they going to?"

"Probably gonna move and not tell me where they are going," she laughed. Although they acted as though they hated her most of the time, that was hard to believe, or else they wouldn't have spoiled her to death.

"Either that or they move to California with Tucker," I said, and she smiled.

"I highly doubt he is ever going to be able to do that. He doesn't think about it enough."

"No, he defiantly doesn't. But if he does move, we will probably never see him again."

"He wouldn't care," Sam said, and she was right. Either that or he would come running back here because life wasn't like how he thought it would be there.

"Sam! I'm home!" Her mom called and Sam jumped. She got up and I could hear her run down the stairs, and I just sat there waiting for her. Of course her mom probably wasn't expecting me to be there either, but oh well.

"Hey Danny," her mom said as she walked by Sam's room to get down to where Amy and Tiffany were at I was guessing. Sam was soon following behind her and turned into the room with me and closed her door.

"She said it's all done. So we should be outta here in no time!"

5 weeks later…

"That's it," Sam said as the rest of the boxes were dropped off at our house full of our old stuff, and plus a ton of new things as well. All furniture, TVs, Computers, and tons of other things were all new. Hardly anything was old, just some things we thought we had to have with us, and pretty much everything out of Sam's room since her parents said they weren't going to keep it all after all, since they too were moving soon after.

"So, I guess this is it?" I asked her holding Amy in my right arm as we both walked into the house.

"Yep! Except…. We have some work to do," she said looked at the millions (not literally) of boxes laying in the doorway.

"I have an easy way out of it all," I said and set Amy down. I ran off a little ways where Amy and Tiffany couldn't see me and I transformed into Danny Phantom. I went invisible and went inside one of the boxes, carrying things up to their correct floors and correct rooms. It took a while though, and it was still going to be a long time because all I was taking care of was furniture since that was the hardest.

"Done with all that," I said, and saw it was 3 hours later.

"Finally," Sam teased, and ran up the stairs. I looked down at Amy and Tiffany who were sitting there patiently waiting for their chance to be able to go explore.

"You guys want to go check it all out?"

They both nodded in unison, and I took I nodded for them to follow me. The living room had brand new, black furniture and the carpet had been changed to a dark purple color from the ugly pink that had once laid there before.

"Are we living here?" Amy asked me and looked around the huge living room, I guess they didn't know what to think of it.

"Yes."

"Where's my room? Or do I have to share one still…" She asked as though she really cared all that much right now. They never fought with each other, ever, and at the age of four they really didn't need their privacy.

"Umm, you never had to share one?" I told her, since they were never in the same house, except for when they were really little.

"So?"

I laughed and began to walk up the stairs, Tiffany was following behind quietly with nothing much to say. She was secretive, and never bothered to say hardly anything, that is except to Sam. I guess it was because I was sort of a stranger to her, she had seen me a lot, but not enough. Amy also had higher spirits, and liked to let people know what she was thinking.

"This is your room Tiffy," I said and walked into a plain room with just a bed, a dresser and a few boxes laying on the ground filled with her stuff. The carpet was a dark blue with light blue walls. Of course whenever she showed interest in what her room really looked like, she could get it re-done whenever she wanted to.

She looked around it, but said nothing about it. She jumped onto her brand new bed that still had the plastic around the mattress and then hopped back down onto the ground and sat down.

"You gonna follow us still?" I asked her and she shook her head no and I walked off with Amy. When we got to her room she was all excited about it.

"I like it! Much better than my old room," she said and looked about at her dark purple carpet and lighter purple walls. Just then though my ghost sense went off and I flung around in another direction looking for something. Did Amy have a ghost sense yet? Or was she still developing all that stuff? She never said anything about it though…

"It's cold in here," she said as she shivered and walked up beside me looking for warmth.

"I'll be right back," I told her and ran into the hallway before transforming into Danny Phantom. I looked around, flying through all the floors, but saw nothing. Someone was watching us, I could tell. It felt as though there were eyes on me, I didn't realize it before, but now that I was more alert I knew there was someone there.

"What was it daddy?" She asked me when I walked back in the room as myself.

"Nothing…" I said, and sat down on the bed next to her.

"You want me to get your bed set up for you?"

"All right. Can we get everything out?"

"No, not tonight," I told her and opened up a box full of blankets and sheets. I made her bed for her and she ran onto it as though it was so cool to get a new bed. I remembered when I was excited over the simplest things like that, although I guess a new bed could be a good thing to anyone if you desperately needed one.

"You going to bed?" I asked her and she nodded.

"Yep! I want to sleep in my new bed," she said as she nestled down under her also new, blankets and watched me for a second expecting me to leave.

"You call if anything goes on up here, all right?"

"Ok," she said, and didn't even bother to question me about that, I guess it just really didn't matter to her all that much. I flicked the lights off on my way out and headed back down the hall to Tiffany's room, where she was trying to open up one of the boxes that had been shut tightly by Duck tape.

"You want me to get that?" I asked her and she looked up at me with her huge, cute eyes and nodded slightly. How shy she was, I wished she would at least talk once in a while.

I opened it up, and opened the rest of them up for her, so she could get whatever she wanted out, I was going to have to start treating her more nicely so that she would feel more comfortable around me. I made up her bed too, but she didn't want to go to sleep, instead she rummaged through everything else, but I left her alone anyway.

I walked away and ran into Sam who was coming down the stairs.  
"They sleeping?" She asked me and I shook my head.

"Nope, Amy supposedly is, but Tiffany isn't. Why?"

"Just wondering," she said and wandered down the stairs with me following behind here. But I stopped again due to my ghost sense and I looked around the place again. Why was this happening? Maybe it was because of Amy? No… I wouldn't think so.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked me before continuing to wherever she was going.

"Ghost sense keeps going off, but there is nothing here…"

"Probably from Amy? Wouldn't that be annoying if it happened all the time?"

"Yes, it would be. But I don't think it's from her. She doesn't have a ghost sense yet, she hasn't developed it all the way yet."

"Doesn't mean anything though."

"True, but in yet you have to think that if she isn't exactly ghost yet, just kind of it isn't going to make my ghost sense go off. I think it's an actual ghost."

"You think they followed us then?" She joked, and put her arms around me, "Don't worry about it Danny, unless you actually see something, or something is going wrong. Just forget about it, ok?"

"If you say so," I said and she let go of me and continued down the hallway to our room. I sighed and looked around at all the boxes still lying around. Unpacking tomorrow was going to be tons of fun, well, not really.

Sam appeared back around the corner with Black pajama pants with purple stars that fit her frame perfectly and a tight purple tank top.

"Found your clothes?" I asked her, and she nodded. I just kept staring at her as she walked by, she was so gorgeous, it was hard to look away from her.

"Stare any harder?" She asked and I felt my face flush over in red, I didn't know she was paying attention to me…

"Umm…" I said unable to think of an excuse and she just rolled her eyes and said something as she walked out of the room and ran up the stairs probably to get Tiffany into bed, and make sure Amy was really sleeping.

"They're all tucked in, and Amy fooled ya hun, cuz she wasn't sleeping," she laughed as she got down to the bottom of the stairs. She grabbed my hand and drug me into our room and closed the doors.

"First night here," she said, and pulled out blankets and sheets from a box, and fixed up the bed for us.

"Yea, I hope Amy and Tiffany like it here, better than having parents that are pretty much split up, huh?"

"Yes, it is. My mom is surprised we are still together. She says that usually the guy would have left the girl with the two kids and would have chosen someone else without kids. She is pretty amazed with you," Sam said, and I smiled.

"Yea, but I could never do that to you."

"No, and I you are such a sweety," she said and pulled the covers up over herself and I slid in next to her. I flipped the light off, luckily the light switch was right next to the bed, which made it so easy to do that.

"And our first night sleeping together," Sam said, and put her arms over my chest and moved up next to me.

"Yea," I said, and thought, life just couldn't get much better than this, but things could always get worse…

I woke up in the middle of the night due to a sharp pain in my back, and a bad dream of the battle Valerie and I had so long ago. Why was it coming back to my attention? Once I was fully awake though, that sharp pain began to hurt even worse, and I sat up fast and placed my hand on my back. My back was hot, and wet, and when I pulled my hand away and looked at it, I realized it was blood. What the hell was going on?  
I slipped out of bed trying to avoid waking Sam up and I walked into the bathroom, and shut the door. I turned around and the whole back of my shirt was soaked with blood. I took my shirt off in a panic, how in the hell did this happen? The scar on my back was where it was coming from, like a nightmare come true. Shit. Now what do I do?

I put my back into the tub, and grabbed the shower head (One of those things that you can take off the wall) and turned the water on. I watched the blood wash down and fill the tub with blood as it fell down through the drain. It made me queasy just watching all the blood, and knowing it was mine.

After it seemed as though none was coming out anymore I got up and looked in the mirror at my back again and saw blood was oozing back out of it once again but not as much this time, it was almost over with. I grabbed a towel, and wrapped it around myself, hopefully it wouldn't soak through that, or I was in trouble. There was no way I could loose much more blood that I had already lost and not get sent to the hospital.

"Sam," I said nudging her to wake her up. There was no way I was possibly going to be able to go back to bed now, and the bed had to have been soaked to.

"What is it?" She asked me and sat up, and I flicked the lights on. The bed was indeed soaked with blood, and she looked at it then up at me.

"What's going on?" She asked, and I shrugged.

"I dunno, woke up to a sharp pain in my back, and where my scar is at, it began to bleed. However it happened, I have no idea."

"Are you all right?" She asked, and I nodded.

"Yea, I think so."

"Shit, I thought all this was a thing of the past," she said, and pulled the sheet, and blankets off the mattress, and the mattress too had a big blood spot on it, well, there would be one thing to remember with it forever. She flipped the mattress, and luckily it hadn't leaked all the way through it.

"You're sure you're Ok?" She asked me, did she always have to worry about things?

"Yes, I'm just fine."

"All right, but you have any idea how it happened?"

"No, no clue. I was dreaming about how it happened, but that wouldn't have anything to do with it. And I have no idea why it is all coming back to me again," I said, and she looked me over, and had a saddened expression on her face.

"Hold on," she said, something suddenly hitting her and she ran out to the living room with me following behind slowly. Wow, I did loose some of my strength from it.

She hooked the TV up, and turned it on to the news.

"What are you doing?"

"Watch, I will see if I am right," she said, and we both stared at the news, and it was just talking about some dumb stuff going on in the city and all, things that I could care less about at the age of eighteen, and I would probably never care about it either.

"Also today, Valerie Grey was released from Prison, after a trial her father had over her getting out early. What was only two years left, turned into only a few hours left, and she is now free, and back to trying to gain back her life again. We have her here with us right now," The newscaster said, and turned over to Valerie who was standing behind her.

"Now Valerie, do you plan to throw your past away and take on a new life?"

"Of course I do. I realized my mistakes, and I realized how dumb I had been. If you're watching this Danny and Sam, I am sorry for what I have put upon you," she said in a fake voice.

"They are falling for THAT!" I asked the TV, and got mad at it. Why did they let her go? Why? She had attempted to kill both Sam and I, and almost killed Amy. She needed to be locked up for life is what she needed.

"See Danny, it must have just been because you had been able to tell she was free again."

"That would explain the dream, but not how I got hurt again so mysteriously."

"Well… that is a different story I guess, but it might have something to do with it?"

"I highly doubt that. My ghost sense going off wasn't because of Amy, it's because we aren't alone…"

DONE! Finally! Heehee. This is soooo much fun to write! Lol. But I am gonna update at least Midnight High before I continue on with this one, so it won't be until a week or so before an update. Please review, and I hope you enjoyed it!


	4. Run Away

Chapter 4: Run Away

"Daddy, I'm scared," I heard as I got shaken by my shoulder lightly, and I opened my eyes tired from the stuff that had gone on the day before.

"What is it?" I asked her, and looked up at the clock, 8:00 in the morning, I should be out of bed by now anyway, and she was just a personal alarm for this morning. It was Amy, I knew it wasn't Tiffany, because she wouldn't be able to come wake me up, she was scared of me, let alone whatever Amy had to be afraid of.

"I saw someone in my room, but he disappeared."

"Who?" I asked her not thinking that she was only four and had no idea who was who and what was what really.

"I dunno. He was scary though. He had sharp teeth, and a cape. And creepy eyes." Vlad, Right? It described him enough, and I knew he wanted Amy for one reason or another. Although she was only a four-year-old, he probably thought she could be used for his uses, and he was sick enough to take her from her family.

"Come here," I said and pulled her up onto the bed and she crawled under the blankets between the two of us and Sam woke up from it, and looked at me, "What's wrong?"

"She just got scared," I said, and decided I would tell her about it later. She was now awake to; chances were I wasn't going to fall back asleep, especially when it was 8:00, kind of hard to. Amy wasn't going to either; she just laid there and stared up at the ceiling.

"Not tired?" I asked her, and she shook her head, and kept on staring. I was hoping it wasn't Vlad, and maybe she was just imagining things. After all, if she held it out for a while, Vlad was old now, he wouldn't last much longer, well, at least I was hoping not. Although, I guess he was around the same age as my parents… but he looked older, didn't that count for something?

Sam climbed out of bed, and Amy's eyes left the ceiling to watch Sam walk out the door, and she hopped out of bed to follow, which meant she really came in there to want something as well, not just to say she was scared. I sat up, and went straight to the bathroom, and yanked the towel off my back, dried blood coming with it, shit how much that hurt. New blood started running down my back. This hadn't happened for no good reason; there probably was someone here, Vlad. He had to have been here, he was sick enough to do something like carve out my scar to get me all worried about that to take my attention off of him.

"You Ok?" Sam asked causing me to jump as she walked up behind me and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Yea, I'll be fine, I'm sure," I assumed and grabbed another towel out and set water on it.

"Here," Sam said taking it out of my hands and she began to wipe the blood off my back and I winced in the pain of it. The cold water hitting it felt like needles getting shoved into my back, but it really wasn't all that bad, I was just letting my imagination carry on from what it really was.

"We are gonna need a big band aide for that," Sam said, looking puzzled after she was done mopping the fresh blood off my back.

"I think Vlad did it," I said while she was thinking about it.

"What do you mean?"

"Amy said she saw someone in her room, that's why she came in this morning. I say Vlad did this to me to get my mind off of him, but it isn't going to work."

"Why would he be in Amy's room?" She asked me looking through the cupboards as though there was going to be anything in them, just a few towels was all for the moment.

"Well, I will have to run into town, but for now," she said cutting off her sentence and grabbing another towel. She wrapped it around me a little tighter than I had it wrapped last night and she stuck a safety pin in it to hold it in place.

"Yay, I get to look fat today," I moaned and Sam laughed.

"Yep."

We walked in a line back into the bedroom and I rummaged through a box lying on the floor to try and find my clothes. I found a baggy black shirt and threw it on.

"Well, now you can't even tell," I smirked and Sam rolled her eyes at me and left the room.

Once again my thoughts returned to me and I began to think about what Vlad's plan was this time around. Not as though I had had any problems with him in the past few years, but I always knew that was odd that he all the sudden decided to leave me alone. He was waiting for me to be vulnerable and in the mean time he was able to think up another sinister plan of his, but this time I had a strange feeling that it was going to be worse than any of the other times.

After all, if Vlad had a good four, even a little more than four years without even coming NEAR me, he had plenty of time to think. Now all I had to do was figure out just what he was up to, but it wasn't going to be easy. It was hard for me to think like someone as evil as him, I couldn't figure out his plans if it was for my life, but it was going to bug me all day and all night. And the fact that Valerie was now free wasn't going to help much either. After all, she could be anywhere, but at least she didn't know where we lived and we were set back a little where she wouldn't find us too easily.

I tried my hardest to ignore it, and I walked out into the living room where Sam was dumping cereal into a bowl for Amy. It was amazing that she could only eat half a bowl of cereal maybe. Sam set it on the table and Amy climbed up onto a chair and began taking little bites out of it.

"So, you ready to help me unpack?" Sam asked me, and I gave her a sad face and she laughed at me.

"Yea, that's really gonna change my mind."

"Hey… it was worth a try," I smiled and we both walked into the living room and I began tearing at boxes, it would be forever until we had everything all out of boxes and put where it belonged. But it was interrupted by my ghost sense going off, a cloud of blue came out of my mouth and I looked around tensely. What now?

"Sam, ghost problem, I will be right back," I said and walked outside before transforming into my ghost mode. I flew up and looked around, but there was nothing to be seen around me, so I flew in my house, but nothing there either. I found myself back where I started, but nothing found. I changed back while Amy was out of the room and Sam knew I had no luck.

"Whatever it is, it's sneaky to be able to get past ya."

"Nah, I haven't had a ghost fight since I can remember really. I mean, nothing major, I guess I could be getting a little slow…"

"You think so?"  
"Maybe… I have gotten a little lazy," I laughed despite the fact that it really wasn't funny, and I needed to get my butt back in gear, but I wasn't nearly motivated enough to until something actually happened.

"Yea, but that's ok."

"No, not really. If I let myself get too laid back, I will be in trouble when something actually happens. I should go like… on purposely let a ghost out, then maybe it will get me moving again."

"Yea, that's a real smart idea Danny. Then when you let out some thing that destroys the world the pressure will all be on you," she smiled and put an arm around my shoulder.

"You have a point…"

"Of course I do, I'm always right."

"I wouldn't go that far…"

"Hey!" She yelled and shoved me, then walked off in another room. I shook my head and followed her, but then my ghost sense once again went off. Well, so far this day was getting annoying. I transformed and looked around, nothing within sight. I walked around, and then flew to the outside of the house, searching high and low. But there was once again, nothing. It was someone I knew, because they were trying to annoy me to death that was for sure.

"Danny!" Sam said running into me when I transformed back into my regular form.

"Hey, watch where you're going," I told her and she looked like she wasn't in the mood for jokes, she looked frightened about something and I returned her glance with a confused look in my eyes.

"Amy is gone," she told me quietly, and it took a couple of minutes for me to realize what she had actually said, and I ran up the stairs really quickly looking in her room. There was a scuffled mess of stuff all over the floor with Tiffany sitting in the corner terrified to death. I walked over to her and picked her up, tears had stained the side of her cheeks and she was still trying her hardest to stop crying.

"Did you see anything?" I asked her and she nodded, but I had a feeling I might not be able to get much out of her.

"Do you remember what he looked like?" She once again nodded but said nothing, and clutched onto me as tightly as she could. I walked downstairs to where Sam was sitting on a chair with her head in her hands. I walked up behind her and put my remaining hand on her back and she looked up at me, her eyes were watery but she was going to act as though she wasn't crying.

"I'll get her back," I promised and set Tiffany down on the ground.

"Tiffany, tell me, did this guy look like this?" I asked her returning to the room with a picture of Vlad. She nodded slowly, and I thought for a second. Wherever he was, it wasn't at his house because then I could find him. With all the money he had, there was no telling where he would be hiding at. I went into our bedroom and laid down staring at the ceiling, I had to think, to the best of my ability, where would he be at? Knowing him sooner or later he would play a sick joke on me or something and give himself away. But could I wait that long? He could wait until he had all ready corrupted her mind before he would even come close to letting me know where he was. He was figuring with a 4 year old he would have much more of a chance getting her to turn into him, since it had never worked on me.

"You can't go after her right now," Sam told me walking into the room. She lay down next to me but I kept my gaze at the ceiling.

"What makes you say that?"

"You're hurt still Danny."

"Has that ever stopped me before?"

"No Danny, but this time I mean it. You try to hard at things and never think about it. I can't loose you too."

"Sam, I'm fine. I still don't know where to look first, I have the whole world to look for her, Vlad could be anywhere. Yet, it's only time before it drives him nuts and he has to give it away."

"Valerie is out there now too," Sam reminded me; she wanted me to stay, yet in a way I could tell she also wanted to get Amy back as soon as possible. I was totally lost as to where to look, or go at the moment.

"Maybe I should go find Valerie, ask her if she has anything to do with this."

"Are you out of your mind? She wants to kill you Danny!"

"Very true… but still. She could be in it, remember, her and Vlad did work together… in an odd kind of way."

"Yea, but she doesn't know he's half ghost yet, and she's not going to believe you, or turn on him for you."

I sighed and closed my eyes for a second trying my hardest to think, but when you had to worry about where your four-year-old child was being held captive by a psycho, it didn't allow you to think all that to easily. Especially when really, you weren't expecting to have to think at all then all the sudden you get hit with something like this, it kinda freezes your thoughts.

"I say you try his house first. You know, he is going to think you're going to think he isn't there. So maybe, he's playing tricks on your mind."

"Yea, I guess I could do that," I said and stood up, I needed to get started on something as fast as I could at least.

"I didn't mean right now," she mumbled and I smiled at her and transformed. I left the house and was far out of view within seconds, I was going to have to push the limit if I wanted to get there before it got dark out, after all… it was a few states over.

"Danny, I never expected you to leave your house when you found out I was out," I heard the familiar voice of Valerie say behind me and I turned around to greet her with her gun pointing at me.

"I have more problems on my hand then you know of," I said and turned to leave without causing a fight, but she shot up and I felt it fly over the top of my head. I turned back around and she was laughing at me.

"Don't turn away Danny, or you might find yourself falling to the ground, dead. You don't want to fight me? You know, you were indeed lucky you made it out the last time. This time though, I'm going to make sure you go down."

"Seriously, I don't have time for this!"

"Oh, what do you have better to do? Hmm?"

"Nothing you need to know about Valerie…"

"Ah, ok. Well, then obviously it isn't too important because if I found it to be, I just might let you go. Does it have anything to do with Amy?" She asked with a smirk and that made me attack her, but it was a natural impulse. I raised my hand up and shot at her, breaking the board out from under her feet. It caught her again though as she fell, which was kind of good because she might know something.

"What do you know?" I asked her, this time I was serious, she would have only known that if she had something to do with it all.

"Wow, you have a temper all right. I know nothing about it Danny; I was just taking a lucky guess."

"I'm highly doubting that," I challenged, I could tell by the way she was acting that nothing coming out of her mouth was true.

"Oh? Fine, maybe I do know something. In fact, I was even here because I was hired to keep you busy," she laughed and I tensed up. I couldn't kill her, but I needed some way to hurt her, and get everything out of her. This was Vlad's idea; he knew I would never actually kill anyone, so he was going to set up something to keep me occupied.

"Well Danny, you ready to fight? Or do you want to let this opportunity slip right by you?"

All right, that was it. Sorry it took me so long to update


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